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Sunday Night Thoughts

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Today was one of those days that I will remember for the rest of my life. I guess it will be tough to forget the moment I became the Lead Minister of a great church that is changing lives.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I pinched myself to make sure this was real. Every time I got ready to step on stage this surreal feeling of “who am I” overwhelmed me. As I opened my mouth and spoke about Moses and his “who am I” attitude, I too began to ask God why he placed me here in this place to do this.

The atmosphere was electric with anticipation today. My prayer is that every week is that way. That week in and week out we have a heavy desire and expectancy that God is moving and we simply want to be a part of it. For me today pretty much every face was a new face. But I heard from more than one person today that has been here for awhile that there were lots of new faces to them too. So with that said here are some Sunday highlights from CCM today.

  1. They 9:30 Gym Venue was packed to the walls. There were people everywhere. Was so proud of Brad, Micah and the team for leading our people so well.
  2. People not only came to church today, but they were introducing me to their friends that came with them that they invited. I LOVE THAT!!!
  3. 9:30 in the Worship Center Venue was packed as well. They were on fire and ready to worship.
  4. Our worship leader Benji was incredible and as a bonus I got to embarrass him at the 11:00 Worship Center Venue. :-)
  5. 11:00 Worship Center Venue was a crowd full of new people today. Staff and elders were telling me that they were seeing people in there that they had never seen before.
  6. Our Childrens Ministry knocked it outta the park today. With kids everywhere and more visitors than we knew what to do with, they handled it like pro’s.
  7. Our media and tech crews pulled off a great weekend. With four services, in three venues, crammed into two hours, everything went off without a hitch. Way to go team.
  8. I LOVE OUR CHURCH!!! They are so ready to show more of Christ to the world and that will never get old.
  9. I got to preach about the way God loves us and how he redeems us through the way he loves us. I Love that!!!
  10. Our 11:00 Classic service was a blast. I love the responsiveness of that service and that all generations are being transformed by the scriptures.
  11. Our host team was awesome. Thanks Mark S., Brad, Mark T., and Dale for making sure each venue was done with excellence. Could not do it without you guys.

I am so humbled and honored to be the new minister of Christ Church at Mason and truly cannot wait to see what God is going to do with us in the next year. Hang on CCM it is going to one fun and crazy ride.

What Rocky Balboa and Church Have in Common

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Do you like a good trilogy? I know I do.

I loved the first three Star Wars movies (I’m talking 4-6)

The first three Rocky Movies (we all know they were the best)

The first three Die Hard movies.

The Scream Trilogy.

The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Lord of the Rings.

The first three Final Destination Movies…ok…maybe not!!!

You get the point. Some of the greatest movies and stories of our time have come in three’s. Now you may be asking why all the trilogy talk? Well I am glad you asked. This weekend at Christ Church we start a brand new series that is going to be a trilogy. This weekend starts the first of the three series’ we are going to unpack.

Let’s start the new year off together with friends, family, neighbors, the random guy you see at Starbucks, and anyone else you can find, and invite them to be a part of FIRST PERSON!!! In this first series we will talk all about the nature of who God is and why he loves us.

Join us for one of our 4 services at 9:30 and 11:00am.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO AND DIRECTIONS!!!

 

Snowmageddon 2012

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Well Ohio, we got a taste of what we are coming too. Merry Christmas Texas Style.

A Very Merry DeVage Christmas

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If you know and love my family then you will probably enjoy this. If you don’t well…view at your discretion. :-)

Merry Christmas to you all!!! Hope today is full of laughter, love, and rest.

Faith Of A Child

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Natalie’s Baptism from Trevor DeVage on Vimeo.

Crazy Adventures From Greece

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As many of you know, over the past seven days I have been on the other side of the world with my good friend and ministry partner, Drew Sherman. We have from one end to the other and it seems to get better and better with each place we go. If you want to see more go check out his last two posts on his new blog HERE!!!

Today was a great day. We awoke in Meteora, Greece to a view that was unparalleled to anywhere else. There were 1000 ft. cliffs kissing the heavens above us as the sun made it’s dominance known. After breakfast we hopped on the bus and drove up these cliffs to tour a couple of the monasteries that were build there in the 16th century. First off the views were breathtaking. Just when you thought it could not get any more beautiful you would turn the other way and you would lose your breath all over again. Once inside these miracle buildings, you immediately were taken back to a time when patients and study were of the utmost importance. Originally there were 24 of these buildings, but after the persecution of the Ottomans there now stands only six. The cool thing was seeing the nuns and priests that were still living in them today. Everyday they pray for 8 hours, work for 8 hours, and sleep for 8 hours. Their devotion is second to none.

From there we went to the city of Berea. This is the city that is mentioned in Acts 17 where Paul and Silas ministered. The faith of those in Berea was so strong. This was a result of testing everything that Paul taught them and then knowing that it was truth because they compared the teachings to scripture. The only thing left in the city from Paul’s journey there are the three steps that he would have stood on and preached the message to the Berean’s. Today I sat on those same steps and read from Acts 17. As I did so I had chills run down my spine knowing that the words I was reading were uttered from the place I was sitting.

This trip has been unreal.

I have walked where Paul has walked.

I have stepped where Paul has stepped.

I have read Paul’s words where Paul preached those very words.

My faith journey has become even more alive, because I have been where the gospel started.

More to come…

SEE PICS BELOW!!!

Cliffs at Meteora, Greece

Drew and I on the cliffs

Monastery on the cliffs of Meteora, Greece

Me reading Acts 17 in Berea, Greece where Paul preached from.

Living by Karma Not By Faith

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If you have not been with us for the past few weeks you may not know that we have been in a series called Supernatural. In this series we have been exploring and bringing to light the things going on in the unseen world.  It is amazing to me that when you start talking about these things you begin to notice more things around you.

A few days ago I was teaching a class on confession at a local college and at the end of the class gave the 70+ students a chance to have open biblical confession amongst one another. It did not take long for these students one by one, to stand and start ripping off layers and layers of bondage that had kept them from true freedom in Christ. We literally heard everything.

Students dealing with addiction.

Students dealing with depression.

Students dealing with anger.

Students dealing with self-worth.

Students dealing with racism.

Students dealing lust.

Then one young man stood up. As he began to share he started to talk about his struggle with lust and pornography. I was certain that his plight was going to be just like the rest we had heard and prayed over. But then it shifted. He shared that in 2008 a friend had walked through his struggle with the above issues and helped him find freedom. They were close and shared a deep bond of Christ.  He then shared that last Thanksgiving his friend was killed in a car accident.

This is when his struggle was different than anyone else’s. His voice began to shake and tears filled the bottom of his eyelids. He began to share that when his friend died he lost the ability to trust. He said he was scared to get close to anyone out of fear that something bad would happen to them. He felt as if his friend had died as a result of something he had done. He went on to share that he was scared to get to close to the girl he was dating out of fear that something bad would happen to her as a result of dating him.

My heart broke for this young man. Here was a guy that was in bible college, getting a ministry degree to be a pastor, and he was no longer functioning out of faith, but out of karma. He believed that by someone just getting close to him was the reason bad things happened to others. So many of us function this way too yet we claim Christ.

I then took a moment and shared with him and the room a story from John chapter 9. Jesus disciples encounter this blind man and they ask Jesus a very karma like question. They want to know what sin he or his parents committed that caused him to be blind. Do you hear what they are saying? They are asking him if there was some karma that was causing pain and hurt.

Jesus looks them in the face and simply tells them that NOTHING was done that caused this man to be blind. In fact Jesus goes a step further and tells them that his blindness is the very thing that is going to be used to bring glory to the name of God. Then right there in front of them he heals the young man. He can now see. I imagine that as things came into focus his faith increased. I imagine as he could look into the eyes of Jesus his faith strengthened. I also imagine that this moment moved the disciples from living by karma to living by more faith.

I shared this with the young man standing in front of me. As he wept new tears people laid hands on him and we prayed. My prayer for him was simple.

“Jesus, free this man from living by karma. Help him to live by faith.
Help him to see you. Help him to realize that all things in this life work for the good of the kingdom. Jesus, help him and us to live by faith and not by karma. Amen.”

Today may you and I live by the glorious faith of Jesus Christ not by the lie the enemy feeds us that is karma.

Ashamed By Grace

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We live in a world where grace is of the premium. We are quick to ridicule, judge, and tear down. As much as we love a good comeback story we also love the dirt of a great fall. Especially one’s where all the kings horses and men cannot put Lindsey Lohan back together again. We like grace when we receive it but it is tough for us to give. Or is it. Think for a moment of the past couple years. We have seen a many great fall.
Brittney Spears

Tiger Woods

Michael Vick

John and Kate Plus 8…well…maybe!!!

Either way you get the point. We say that our world is graceless and we thrive off of trashing others, but I have had more conversations with people lately that said they love seeing these people beat the odds, receive grace, and rise to greatness again. As I thought about this, this is true. I have never met any of the above, but I longed to see each of them make it. Is it strange that I was always scared that I would turn on the TV and Brittney would be dead? Why? I have never met her, don’t really care for her music, and have no personal ties to her. Yet for some reason I wanted her to make it. This past week I watched all four rounds of the Players Championship. Why? One, I like golf. But two, I want to see Tiger do well. Everyone has their opinion on him but he is human and he, as much as me, deserves second chance after second chance.

Why? Because we like Grace. In fact for most of us it is easier to want it for others than for ourselves. We love to see others make it, but for us, when it comes to ourselves, we are simply…Ashamed by Grace. It seems to me, especially in church circles we will sing Amazing Grace, and read books like What’s So Amazing About Grace, and study together things like Gracenomics, and even follow one of my favorite organizations People Of The Second Chance, yet we ourselves think the grace that everyone is talking about is for someone other than us.

Those people have overcome.

Those people are special.

Those people have resources to receive grace.

We think that it applies to everyone but us. We are ashamed to receive it. It is as if we don’t want to receive grace because we fear that there is a limited supply and someone more deserving should get it. We think that our transgressions are too big for grace to cover them. We fear receiving grace because that would mean people would have to know what we did. We are ashamed by it because it proves that we are not in control. We are ashamed to receive it because we feel that we simply don’t deserve it. And you know what…?

Your right!!! In fact that is by definition what Grace is.

It is the getting of something we don’t deserve.

None of us deserve it. That’s what makes it so incredible. In fact receiving grace is not something that Christ wants us to be ashamed of, but is the very thing he wants us to receive and then scream it from the rooftops because he died to give it to us.

Today may we be people who are no longer ashamed by grace, but are ashamed when we don’t receive it.

Rest…Replenish…ReEnergize (Thoughts from sabbatical)

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Here I sit…

Week two of my sabbatical is coming to a close. I was really looking forward to this time, but even I did not realize how much I needed it. Let me back up though. Some of you hear the word sabbatical and you think a myriad of things. Some think…

VACATION

NOTHINGNESS

TIME OFF

LAZY

Even though all those things seem to be what we would label “sabbatical” it is so much more than that. This is what I love about my church. At the ten-year mark they give each of our staff members a one month sabbatical. However, this is not a vacation. This is not nothingness. This is not “time off”. It is rest, but is not laziness. This is a time to rest, replenish, and re-energize. In fact there are some requirements on our time of sabbatical. Not a list of rigid rules, but some guidelines in order to make us truly get the most of it.

REQUIREMENTS OF SABBATICAL:

Week 1: You must spend one week at another church simply serving. For me that was a trip to Nashville. Some of my best friends are on staff at one of the best churches in the country there. I love it, because I can go, copy stuff, make coffee, file stuff, love on people, take notes, encourage staff, and simply be a guy helping the church for no other reason than serving the church.

I am not drawing a paycheck from them.

I am not getting any gain other than serving them with the gospel.

I have to tell you that it is one of the best weeks I have had so far on my sabbatical. In fact I was able to get my friend there to take the weekend off, which was the first time in four years that he has had a Sunday off where he was not leading somewhere else. I served him and his family and it was so rich. We unplugged, got in kayaks and spent three hours in the Harpeth River in Tennessee. It was full of resting, replenishing, and re-energizing. It took that week to get me in a state of sabbatical.

Middle of Nowhere: Nashville, TN

 

Week 2: You must spend a few days in solitude. Solitude looks different for all people. However, one constant remains. You must get still and quiet in order to hear God’s voice in new and fresh ways. I was home from Nashville for a few days to celebrate my wife and daughters birthdays and then I hopped another plane to the North East. I walked off the plane this past Saturday in Boston. It was cool and overcast outside. I got my rental car and started up the coast. An hour later and I was in Manchester, NH. Now being an East Coaster myself it felt as if I was coming home. It was welcoming and full of beauty. There were rolling hills and mountains in the distance. I spent a few days with my good friends Bo and Eric who used to be on staff with us in Texas, but now lead one of the greatest churches in the North East. Everyday since I have been here I have had large chunks of solitude. Simply still and quiet moments. It is amazing when you still yourself how clearly you can hear God.

He has spoken through scripture.

He has spoken through nature.

He has spoken through the quiet.

He has spoken through others.

He has simply spoken…

Today is a full day of solitude. Today is full of writing, reading, and listening.

New Found Lake: Bristol, NH

Week 3 & 4: You can do what you would like. For me…that means going home and hanging with my family. Investing all I can in my wife and daughters. Giving them the full attention that they need from their husband and father. It means resting at home. It is like when you go on vacation and you come home needing a vacation from your vacation. Well, this time I get that. I get to come home and rest after traveling to rest. Sure I look forward to new places. I love the quiet of airplanes, hotel rooms, and the loneliness that sometimes comes with travel. In fact I revel in those moments. However, there is really no place like your own bed, couch, kitchen, patio, family, and surroundings. I actually look more forward to that than I do anything else I have done.

I encourage you…if you are not taking a regular sabbath, you need to. You don’t need a month. In fact Jesus retreated regularly to rest, replenish, and re-energize. It is time that we take back the time that God wants from us and give it to him. It is there and there alone that we hear the still small voice of the Lord.

Grace and Peace

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A few months ago, amidst going through some of the toughest moments of life, something stood out to me in scripture for the very first time. In fact is it not funny that you can read and see things over and over, yet never really see what is glaring right into your soul.

I noticed right at the beginning of one of Paul’s letters in the New Testament it started with the phrase “Grace and Peace to you in…” I am not sure why this struck such a chord with me but my interest was peeked. I turned to another book of Paul’s and read the intro phrase “Grace and Peace to you in…”

Sure enough, the more I turned the pages the more I learned that Paul started most his letters this way to the churches he was writing to. Then I had this thought…

Could it be that simple?

Could Paul have just unlocked an unspeakable truth to me that has always been right there in its simplest form?

Honestly…Yes!!! It really was that simple. Now you may be asking the question of “What is that simple?” Well, I am glad you asked.

Notice that Paul does not say “Peace and Grace.” In fact the order is quite important. He puts Grace before Peace. Funny how that works. I think of all the times that I have tried to feel peace before offering grace to others. As I went through the myriad of times in my life where I have tried to do that I realized that it never happened. I have never had a moment where peace preceded grace for me when I had been hurt or offended and was trying to move forward. The only time that I ever found true peace was when I offered grace first.

Grace offers us love.

Grace offers us joy.

Grace offers us transformation.

Grace offers us redemption.

Grace offers us a new start.

Grace offers us friendship.

Grace offers us newness.

Grace offers us second chances.

Grace offers us intimacy.

Grace offers peace…peace that surpasses all understanding.

So today I say to you “GRACE AND PEACE!!!” May you now find peace because you have been extended grace, and may you now give grace in order to help others find peace.

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